Jury: Life in prison without release for soldier who massacred 16 Afghan villagers last year

(DVIDS, Spc. Ryan Hallock, File/ Associated Press ) - FILE - This Aug. 23, 2011, file photo, provided by the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System shows Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales during an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Bales, a U.S. soldier charged in the killing of 16 Afghan villagers, pleaded guilty in June in a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. His sentencing is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013 with the selection of a military jury.





By Associated Press, Published: August 22 | Updated: Friday, August 23, 11:22 AM

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — A military jury has sentenced a U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians last year to life in prison without a chance of parole.

The decision came Friday in the case against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales who pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Bales took the witness stand Thursday and apologized for the pre-dawn attack in March 2012, describing it as an act of cowardice.
Bales, a father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., was serving his fourth combat deployment when he left his outpost at Camp Belambay, in Kandahar province, in the middle of the night to attack two villages.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-soldier-apologizes-for-act-of-cowardice-in-murder-of-16-afghan-civilians-testimony-ends/2013/08/22/abca7c6e-0b95-11e3-89fe-abb4a5067014_story.html